1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a proximity type contactless IC card issuance machine. More particularly, this invention concerns an improvement of a proximity type contactless IC card issuance machine that makes the efficient issuance of proximity type contactless IC cards possible.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, ID cards of various types are being used. Such ID cards are requested to be prevented from tampering and to have increased memory capacities. In order to respond to such requests, IC cards are being used for ID cards. There are two types of IC cards, namely, contact IC cards and contactless IC cards. In the contact IC cards, readings or writings of information from or into IC chips buried in the cards are made through electrodes formed on the surfaces of the cards. In the contactless IC cards, readings or writings of information from or into IC chips buried in the cards are made by use of electromagnetic waves of radio frequencies. Some of the contactless IC cards are responsive to the electromagnetic waves generated from signal processing circuits placed 20 to 30 mm apart according to the sizes of the antenna elements and/or the output intensity of the signal processing circuits. On the other hand, some of the contactless IC cards, in which induction coils are provided in the IC chips in the IC cards to reduce the costs, are responsive to the electromagnetic waves generated from signal processing circuits placed 2 to 3 mm apart. These contactless IC cards are called proximity type contactless IC cards.
In general, a proximity type contactless IC card comprises an IC card of a credit card size in which an IC chip is buried. Proximity type contactless IC cards are also sometimes called proximity contactless cards. Encryption data for certifying the rightfulness and personal data of the IC card holder are stored in the IC card.
Proximity type contactless IC cards are issued by a proximity type contactless IC card issuance system comprising a proximity type contactless IC card issuance machine and a workstation. The proximity type contactless IC card issuance machine comprises a print processing mechanism and an IC card processing mechanism. The print processing mechanism is connected to the workstation through communication channels conformable to SCSI, IEEE 1284 or the like. The IC card processing mechanism is connected to the workstation through communication channels such as USB.
An IC card to be processed is put into an inlet of the proximity type contactless IC card issuance machine, transferred to the respective processing mechanisms of the machine where IC encoding or printing process is made into the IC card, and finally put out from an outlet of the machine. Various data are written by the IC encoding into the IC chip of the finished IC card, and personal data such as a photograph of face and an ID number are printed by the printing process on a surface of the IC card.
An antenna tip that is a signal transmission element and a control circuit are mounted on an IC encoder substrate inside of the proximity type contactless IC card issuance machine. The antenna tip comprises a ferrite material of a cylindrical form and an excitation coil wound on its circumference. The control circuit modulates or demodulates signals.
The IC card put into the inlet of the proximity type contactless IC card issuance machine is transferred to the place above the antenna tip so as to make the IC chip buried in the IC card oppose to the antenna tip. Then, information transformed into a predetermined form is exchanged between the IC chip and the control circuit through the antenna tip and the excitation coil so that the information may be read by or written into the IC chip or the control circuit.
A vertical size of a transfer passage of the IC card in the proximity type contactless IC card issuance machine is made larger than the thickness of the IC card so that the IC card may not be blocked while being transferred. Accordingly, the IC card is transferred more or less trembling vertically. On the other hand, the IC card needs to be placed closely and precisely enough to the antenna tip, since the IC card is responsive only to the electromagnetic waves from the antenna tip placed within 2 to 3 mm as mentioned above.
Since the IC card being transferred is trembling vertically, it sometimes occurs that an edge of the IC card collides with an edge of the antenna tip, the IC card is blocked, the work is interrupted and the efficiency of the issuance of the proximity type contactless IC cards is deteriorated.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a proximity type contactless IC card issuance machine capable of raising the efficiency of the issuance of the proximity type contactless IC cards by avoiding the collision of the edge of the IC card with that of the antenna tip, the blocking of the IC card and the interruption of the work.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a proximity type contactless IC card issuance machine comprising an IC card processing mechanism that reads or writes information from or into an IC chip buried in an IC card through a signal transmission element and a print processing mechanism that carries out printing on a surface of the IC card, wherein at least a card collision preventive member having edge portion for smoothly guiding transfer of the IC card is provided near to the signal transmission element.
Since the edge of the IC card to be transferred is smoothly guided along the edge portion of the card collision preventive member, the IC card is not blocked and the work is not interrupted.
According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the card collision preventive member also serves as a fixing spacer for the signal transmission element.
Since the card collision preventive member and the fixing spacer for the signal transmission element can be molded as one body, an accurate positioning of the card collision preventive member and the signal transmission element is possible, and the distance of the antenna tip to the IC chip buried in the IC card, through which the antenna tip is responsive to the IC chip, can be set precisely.
According to further another preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a proximity type contactless IC card issuance machine comprising an IC card processing mechanism that reads or writes information from or into an IC chip buried in an IC card through a signal transmission element and a print processing mechanism that carries out printing on a surface of the IC card, wherein an edge portion for smoothly guiding transfer of the IC card is provided to the signal transmission element.
Since the edge portion of the IC card is smoothly guided along the edge portion provided to the signal transmission element, the IC card is not blocked, the work is not interrupted and the card can be certainly transferred without adding supplemental card collision preventive members, and the system can be constructed at a low price.